Lest We Forget

As the gold market tumbles , time to recall: even if the price of gold had remained high forever, people who trusted in Glenn Beck would still have been cruelly cheated . I'm trying to recall a worse case of media ethics malpractice than Glenn Beck and Goldline, but thus far I draw a blank. …

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Written by David Frum on Thursday December 29, 2011

The Gold Bubble Pops

( Source ) The price of gold dropped $31 an ounce yesterday. Gold has dropped $400 since the summer. Gold still shows gains over one year ago. And of course people who bought gold at the prices that prevailed before 2008 can claim profits of 50% or better on their investment. (NB: The best …

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Written by David Frum on Thursday December 29, 2011

Gold's Value? It's What We Give it.

Eli Lehrer misrepresents my intentions in his most recent piece. To be clear, my article was not making a case for buying gold going forward per se. Trading in commodities is a volatile and highly leveraged activity, and I would not presume to advise the general public on it. As I said in my …

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Written by Brad Schaeffer on Wednesday September 28, 2011

Gold: Good For Nothing

Brad Schaeffer is right: Numbers don't lie. And the numbers on gold are pretty clear: it's a lousy investment over any long period of time. In times of economic uncertainty and malaise (whether it is now or the 1970s) gold prices have indeed gone up rapidly. (Just like dot.com stocks or real …

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Written by Eli Lehrer on Tuesday September 27, 2011

The Gold Bug Bailout

As some may know, my late mother was a very well-known broadcaster on Canadian radio and TV. Early in her amazing career, she received a call from a company - I believe it was VISA - inviting her to sign up as a commercial spokeswoman. She refused. When she told the story to my father, he asked, …

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Written by David Frum on Tuesday September 27, 2011

Still Sound as a Dollar

Conservatives nowadays routinely worry about the dollar’s strength and stability . The dollar, however, refuses to cooperate. Instead, it lately has been rising in foreign-exchange markets, as it typically does in times of international economic and financial stress. The dollar serves as …

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Written by Kenneth Silber on Friday September 23, 2011

Mitt Romney: Goldbug?

Romney's campaign filed FEC reports indicating the candidate's personal wealth to be between $190 million and $250 million. The most important sentence is buried in this Los Angeles Times article: "The couple owns between $250,001 and $500,000 in gold."

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Written by Tim Mak on Saturday August 13, 2011

How to Protect Your Finances in a Default

Six months ago I thought a federal default unthinkable. Default now seems all too sadly possible. How can individuals protect themselves from the economic consequences of a worst-case scenario? Some thoughts: In a default, cash will be worth less (because the dollar will plunge), and debt …

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Written by David Frum on Tuesday July 26, 2011

The Trouble with Gold Bugs

If it's socialism for government to fix the price of copper, how is it libertarianism for government to fix the price of gold? ... is splendidly summed up in today's House testimony by Lewis Lehrman. A dollar convertible to gold would provide the necessary Federal Reserve discipline to …

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Written by David Frum on Wednesday March 16, 2011